To refresh your memory, I'll tell you we walked Madero street from Zocalo (the most important square in Mexico) to Eje Central (an important avenue in Mexico city). Madero street is a pedestrian street, downtown. It's an important street where you can find lots of people, either walking, watching, buying, selling, observing or being observed, you can also find stores, from jewelry to cloths, or even fruit stores, churches, restaurants, hotels... Oh, and let's remember
These are some of the buildings that can be seen in this street.
Our heroes were:
Madero street.
Mainly because it was alive! How many streets you find that actually live like that, with some many people and movement, and actions, no matter what time of day, or what day it is?
Madero Street. Different times o day.
The monkey!!!!
This monkey was amazing; great surprise. We found it as a hero not because of how it was lit, but the act that it was lit. It was street art, and something unexpected to see. It was not commerce or anything you would be expecting, it was street art and unexpected. The fact that you could see it at night, because it was lit up, that gesture, was the hero.
THE MONKEY. Look out for him when you visit this street, day or night.
Pull and Bear
This is an international style building. Someone may think it doesn't belong to this street, but it so belongs in here... It breaks the context, that's true, but Mexico city is not famous for its uniformity, and this street, full of so many styles, is a true representative of Mexico city. Anyways, what caught our eye in this building was how it was lit. We think it is a really well done lighting design that handles the color ombre of the glass box through light, giving the building its essence.
Surprisingly, the only moment you lost it was being right in front of it, but is was a landmark.
MUMEDI
This building is the Museum of Mexican Design.It was one of the few buildings in which we could see an intention. You could feel it had personality, and that's important for a building, for anyone and anything actually.
Warm and cold light help give this building a personality.
And out villains were the next.
High contrast
An over lit street and the most important square in the country in darkness? And the small square next to it, where nothing happens at night, over lit as well? Are you serious?
This picture was taken from the middle of the square. Can you see he high contrast, darkness, and light pollution?
Unbalanced lighting
Are you joking? Some of the most important buildings in the city and nobody took the time to light it well?
What do you think about this? Informal or formal lighting, it's unbalanced.
Poles
In here, glare is the real villain, or the pole's villainistic superpower, because it's also arranged in a very strict grid that ruins the view of so many facades.
Our friend, the Light pole.
Light Pollution
And this is THE VILLAIN, everywhere. Light pollution is a terrible problem found in so many cities... It affects our health, animals' health, insects health, plants health... We need dark skies!!! We need to see the stars again!!!
Luckily, there are people with fantastic projects, such as Noche Zero , and others who measure the darkness of skies. We were lucky enough to meet them (Manuel Ramírez- Geography-, Diana García -photographer-, Sofía Solis - philosopher and Héctor Solano- environmental researcher). Well, we just met Manuel and Héctor, and they gave us and explained us the information they could collect.
The first graphic shows us the light levels along the street and in the square.
Can you see how deeply it falls in the square?
The second graphic tells us how much of green, red and blue light was found along the street, depending on the lamp lighting that area.
These are the 10 different pictures taken from the 10 different sites in which they took the measurements. It's done with a fish eye and a special camera. Check out the evolution, from the street to the square.
And then, came the proposals.
We thought about changing the poles, but give them a second chance as we believe in second chances. The grid should brake, and the poles should be relocated next to the facades, but without interrupting them, let's say, just in between the different facades, with warm, dim light towards the center of the street, letting the store windows light some of the path. We should lower the light levels in the whole street, and luckily, reduce the light pollution.
This wonderful drawing was done by Mari Kubota. She does know how to draw!
Some buildings, important buildings, should be lit, and their luminaries used again.
This is the entrance of Casa de los Azulejos, a building covered in tiles, which cannot be appreciated because of the bad lighting.
In the square, the facades should be redesigned and have one concept for the buildings surrounding the square, not making everything different and begging for attention.
These were also our proposals to these buildings found surrounding the square.
These were basically our results, what we got after discussing and thinking on what to do. I'm listing again, the team members.
Leaders: Jan Ejhed, Mari Kubota and Gustavo Aviles.
Team: Adrián Melendez (Philips), Rogelio González (Architect), Rodrigo Pérez (Architect), Israel García (Architect), Elisa A. Fernández (Landscape Architect), Karla Rodríguez (AccuityBrands), Alejandra Gómez (Architect), Daniela Pérez (Lamp), Nick Tokieda (Bussines Concertan) and me.
All the images were taken from our final presentation, in which all the team worked, and the Light pollution graphics, were given by the group I talked about.
